The Tribalism of Daniel Quinn

The author Daniel Quinn has written several fiction and non-fiction books addressing the future of humanity. He emphasizes the tribalistic cultures of antiquity (10,000 ka) to demonstrate the lack of human egoism prior to the agricultural revolution and Abrahamic religion. His advocation of contemporary tribalism calls for a major shift in human cultural perception.

I have personally read all of Quinn's publications dealing with this subject and am still bound up in his enigmatic conclusions (other than the idea that things must change in order for us to survive).

Quinn seems to be a pantheist, which Dawkins refers to as "sexed up atheism" in The God Delusion. Quinn doesn't seem to have an underlying religious agenda condoning atheism. He even defends the Old Testament from accusations of being the origin of human egoism in his novel "Story of B".

As an atheist I find Quinn's books useful tools for endowing doubt in religious peoples. However, I concede perhaps 60% of Quinn's ideals.

The purpose of this post is to see what others think of Quinn and his position.

The version of tribalism advocated by Quinn isn’t of the traditional variety. Collectivist is virtually the antonym of “new tribalism”. For a more thorough explanation check out the novel Ishmael, or if you’re more into non-fiction Beyond Civilization is an eloquent summary of his ideas.